A donkey cart used to transport equipment for FilmAid screenings in Dadaab, Kenya
Heeding the Call: FilmAid Changes Lives
In seven years, FilmAid has grown tremendously. Initially a simple idea to provide diversion and entertainment to Kosovar refugees in Macedonia in 1999, FilmAid is now an integral component of the psycho-social and health services for tens of thousands of men, women and children living in the refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania where we work. Humanitarian relief agencies with decades of experience now recognize the power of film to impart critical messages and have teamed with FilmAid to make their own outreach even more effective.
In addition to offering screenings every day to refugee audiences that range in size from a dozen to tens of thousands, FilmAid has stepped in to address very specific and urgent needs in the locations where we work. As the repatriation process in Southern Sudan began last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees asked FilmAid to help prepare refugees for the difficult transition home. When cholera threatened to overtake Kakuma refugee camp in 2005, FilmAid dispatched video messages to camp residents that helped keep the epidemic at bay. The previous year, the UN’s World Food Program asked FilmAid to develop a video to encourage HIV/AIDS testing and combat the stigma surrounding the disease in Kenya’s Dadaab camps. Thanks to this video, unprecedented progress has been made in this conservative Somali Muslim community towards raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and how to get tested.
As FilmAid’s programs become more visible and their success recognized, we are called to respond to needs throughout the world. From Kenya and Tanzania to Mississippi and Louisiana, the power of film to entertain, educate, and heal is transforming individual lives and strengthening communities. Your support allows us to continue these vital programs and reach out to more refugees and displaced communities in new locations—because the need for FilmAid across the globe is greater than ever before.
